Delhi's pollution level remains severe; air quality improves rapidly

Delhi's pollution level decreased rapidly but continued to remain in the 'severe' category for the sixth day today, monitoring agencies said.

The pollution level that dipped to 'severe plus' state has come to 'severe' category due to rapid dispersion of pollutants, Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research institute (SAFAR) said.

According to the data by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10 mm) was recorded at 424 in Delhi-NCR and 420 in Delhi today.

The dispersion of pollutants has become faster after the local winds picked up speed, which in turn has rapidly decreased the pollution level and improved air quality, said Gufran Beig, a scientist at SAFAR, adding that the air quality is expected to improve further.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city remained severe at 402. An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe".

The PM10 level had climbed to 778 in Delhi-NCR area and 824 in Delhi on Wednesday, bringing to light that severe pollution could be a 'summer-time problem' too.

The PM2.5 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 2.5 mm) that deteriorated from "very poor" to "severe" has now come to "poor" category. It was 110 in Delhi-NCR and 107 in Delhi today, the CPCB data said.

There was a dip in the air quality level on Tuesday due to dust storms in western India, particularly Rajasthan, which increased coarser particles in the air, it added.